Love Bound: Red Forest
by Amthyst
Summary: A popular forest is haunted by the lives of the missing. At night the soil turns red, and a mysterious sound calls people to their death. In this beautiful place, chaos reins behind the trees and SPR is caught right in the midst of it. Rewrite of Night Calling.


**Love Bound: Night Calling:**

**Chapter 1:**

**Unforeseen Visitors:**

**March 10:**

There was a strange scuffling behind her, turning around revealed a man with a nearly decapitated head, which hung upside down over his shoulder, and was barely attached to his body with a thin, white ligament. Her eyes, which had been alight with surprise, widened in terror as she realized the skeletal hand extending towards her. She gave a shriek, jumped backwards and nearly fell over a metal trashcan.

The man lurched forwards, his neck swinging sickeningly. She could clearly make out the ligament twisting together – any moment it would shear and the swaying head would fall to the ground at her feet. Her hands were vice-like upon the edges of the trashcan, where she had thrown her hands to keep herself from falling.

She was leaning backwards over empty soda-bottles and an oily pizza box. Lazy flies hovered over her hands. Her feet were crossed together, her knees bent upwards painfully. If she didn't steady herself quickly she would fall backwards into the can, and any possibility of escape would die with it.

His long fingers were shockingly white, and she could make out the knuckles and the joints moving around as he stretched his hand further towards her abdomen, making her suck her stomach in. Her arms hurt from holding her weight up, draining her remaining endurance. There was more than a foot of space between them. If done right, she could still make a run for it.

With a tremendous effort she lifted herself half-way up from her previous position, and gingerly dragged her left foot backwards an inch or so away from her right. She steadied the other one more firmly on the ground, and stared at a bone protruding from the man's open cavity.

She drew a big breath, held it, and dropped down to her knees. The man lurched back in surprise, and she took that opportunity to scoot quickly around the trashcan. She jumped up when she had enough space to manoeuvre, and made a run for it without looking back.

_If she could just make it to the office. _

She dashed through the crowd of people, who looked at her oddly as she ran through. A low grunting made her look around; the man was hot on her tail – his head swinging wildly. She gave a low moan, and broke through a particularly thick circle of people, bumping several shoulders in her haste. Their lack of panic told her just how oblivious they were to the entity chasing after her.

She dived under a person's outstretched hand – there was a break in the crowd – and made a beeline to the left. Hope rushed through her as she spotted the staircase leading to her office. She jumped onto the road, the man bounded after her, his hand nearly grazing her on the neck. She gave a low cry as she took the stairs two steps at a time. He hurtled after her with loud, squelching footsteps. Bile rushed to her mouth as she slammed into the door, pulled it open – she could feel a scabbed fingernail on her nape – leaped inside, and banged it closed behind her with a loud, "NO!"

There was a loud thud as the man collided against the door, and then silence. Her hands were clutching her face, clearly afraid that she would not make it. She peeked up at the ringing silence.

Several people were staring at her blankly, and she stared back – _who were they? _

One of them jumped up, "Mai, what's the meaning of this?"

Mai stared at her boss through her fingers; his face became blurry when tears filled her eyes. She couldn't answer his question because shock was surging through her veins. Her tears fell, and she hazily looked at the unfamiliar people still staring at her. Some small part of her brain registered them as clients, and vaguely acknowledged that her boss's anger was justified.

He made his way towards her in a stance that made her feel even smaller and vulnerable than before. He was almost in front of her, when the door started shaking and rattling accompanied by odd grunts. Mai jumped up next to him in alarm, one hand shooting out to grip the sleeve of his shirt, and the other rising to point to towards the door.

"Naru – man – head!"

He stared at her bewildered expression for a moment before focusing on the rattling door. He moved to open it, but Mai's grip stopped him.

"No – don't!"

Her refusal was not needed as the door lurched opened, and the man fell forwards with a low grunt. His eyes were upon her, and they remained on her as his head rolled backwards and forwards. There was a long pause where nobody moved, and then –

The man gave a rattling gasp and moved towards Mai. She gave a loud yell, as his hands fell against her abdomen. The accompanying sensation shook her. There was a sharp coldness at first, which immediately turned to excruciating pain as his hand penetrated through her stomach. She doubled over, her hands gripping at the wrist of the dead man. His other hand seized at her gripped hands, his nails digging into her flesh.

There were obscure screams around her, muffled, as though there was a blanket on her ears. There was a sharp whistling sound, and she could feel his hand sliding away from her hands. She gave a low 'ah' as it left her stomach.

She drew in a large breath, and fell to her knees. She could feel warm pressure on her shoulders, and found it comforting. The pain ebbed away slowly, and looked up blearily to see what was causing the pressure on her shoulders. Deep, cerulean eyes were looking at her with a slight frown. It struck her how beautiful they looked, and for a moment, she stopped hearing her heartbeat, which had been thudding loudly inside her only a moment before.

* * *

"Are you okay?"

"...Yes," her reply was breathy and weak.

His face went in and out of focus as her eyes fell with tiredness, and fell against him with a relieved sigh.

There were people talking around her. Her brain was muddled heavily, and she could only catch missing phrases.

"Didn't know...glad she was..."

"Yeah...let's wait..."

A sharp pain shot across her forehead, and she could feel her temples throbbing with intensity. She gave a low moan, and made to clutch her forehead, but found her arm was too heavy to lift. She could feel someone shifting close to her, and then warm breath fanned across her face. She opened one hazy eye to look at who it was.

"Are you coming around?"

"...Naru?"

"It's me."

"Ugh, what happened?"

"That's what I'd like to know."

She opened both eyes, and looked around at her strangely blank boss. She sat up tenderly; the muscles in the back of her neck were taut and painful.

"You mean...you don't know?"

He turned his head fully towards her, "I'll only know when you tell me," Mai didn't miss the sarcasm in his tone.

Mai felt her consciousness leaving again.

"Maybe, when I come around again."

* * *

There was an odd rushing; her eyes felt unbelievably warm as she opened them. Everything was entrenched in blackness, but dim lights were slowly coming into existence the longer she stared. Her feet were placed on empty blackness that was never-ending, but still provided for a firm footing.

It had been a while since her last visit here.

Her heart filled with an indescribable emotion as she heard soft footsteps coming towards her. Suddenly feeling anxious, she looked around for the source of the noise. Materializing out of thin air, with a benign expression on his face was –

"Gene!"

* * *

Author's Note: This is a rewrite of my original fanfiction: Love Bound: Night Calling. This is happening because:

The original was unsatisfying and clumsy.

The conclusion was rushed and didn't tie up everything as I had wanted.

I wanted to make some changes to the story-line.

With that being said, I would like to inform you that I'll be taking a break for some months to prepare for exams, and wouldn't be able to update until after November.

I also feel like my readers deserve this rewrite because of how the first one ended up like.

Please, review!


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